scifi

scifi

☕ Book Break ☕ |~Across The Universe by Beth Revis~

Posted on by Donna Stone

~Across The Universe by Beth Revis~

Seventeen year old Amy, along with her parents, is cryogenically frozen in order to make a 300 year trip to a new earth. Someone starts the thawing process early, and Amy wakes. We don’t find out who until the end of the novel.

Amy doesn’t fit in with the other people. The small society of ship dwellers have become genetically similar over the generations spent on board, and Amy sticks out with her red hair and white skin. The ship dwellers’ behavior is odd and troubling. Elder, in training to become the leader of the ship, The Godspeed, is the only person Amy’s age on board. He finds Amy irresistibly attractive. Elder searches for the person who is tampering with the cryogenically frozen passengers and discovers much more.

My eldest picked this book for me at the library. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this novel. Before I made it to the last chapter, I felt the need to reserve the next book in the series. Many of the sci-fi novels my boys pick are too heavy on the technical side for me, but this one was perfect.

If you are a fan of sci-fi stories or shows, you might like this series. Great read. Highly entertaining. Satisfying ending to the book with enough left over to make me want to get the next book. Engaging. Satisfying story.

☕ Book Break ☕ | When The English Fall by David Williams

Posted on by Donna Stone

~When The English Fall by David Williams~

“I suppose that is why I still write here, to remember the blessings. And all things are blessings, even the hard things.”

An Amish Dystopian? I loved this story idea and could not resist.

Jacob is an Amish farmer. His daughter has strange fits and nightmares, speaking nonsense about “the English falling” until one night when the world goes dark and planes fall from the sky. What appears to be an EMP or solar storm from the narrator’s description disrupts civilization as we know it. Life on the farm, while harder, is still sustainable, but the outside world pushes in. Daily life is turned on its head.

Beautiful prose, moral dilemmas, harsh realities. A look at what might happen when human beings are put into intolerable situations. How would our society react if all of our systems failed? .
What kind of people are we? What is left after all else is gone?

This book was so engrossing. I do wish there was a sequel, though. .
Great book. Highly recommended for anyone who likes a good read or philosophical discussion. Not just for sci-fi fans.

☕ Book Break ☕ | How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

Posted on by Donna Stone

~How to Stop Time by Matt Haig~
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“A wave can kill you. Or you can ride it. It’s sometimes more dangerous to shy away. You can’t live your life in fear…”
.
Tom Hazard has just taken a job as a history teacher, moving back to London. By all appearances he is a mild mannered 41 year old bachelor. He’s actually much older. Much older. How To Stop Time is a science fiction book about…people who age slower than the typical. They live for hundreds of years. Tom has become aware that there are people who wish to harm those like him, and as protection, he has joined a secret society that keeps them safe. But to belong he has to do his part. He gets occasional assignments, and he must never fall in love.

Intriguing beginning. The story switches back and forth in time but I never found it confusing.
It hit just the right balance of mystery, suspense, and action for this reader. I was completely hooked and read it straight through. .
In this book, the characters travel on a personal journey of introspection and enlightenment. Like all good scifi, the novel gets a bit philosophical. Ends on a note of lessons learned and hope for happy possibilities. Well done. Satisfying ending after I had almost given up hope of Tom having one. Scifi is not my usual genre, but this one had me from page one. Excellent storytelling. Some language.
. “In those moments of that burst alive the present lasts forever.”
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“The way you stop time is by stopping being ruled by it. I am no longer drowning in my past, or fearful of my future.”